Marked for Andrei Fedoseev
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match2 Jul 2029
Astrakhan sink to position 12
18 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market2 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
The dugout2 Jul 2029
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Squad2 Jul 2029
Danil Roslyakov was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Transfer targets2 Jul 2029
Astrakhan asked and Pobeda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Words at Astrakhan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yelisey Krivokhizhin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Market2 Jul 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stanislav Platonov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market2 Jul 2029
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Arseny Nikiforov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market2 Jul 2029
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vladlen Gorbachev has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 May 2029
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Astrakhan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad21 May 2029
Words exchanged at Astrakhan
Danil Roslyakov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout21 May 2029
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Squad21 May 2029
Words at Astrakhan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yelisey Krivokhizhin is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout21 May 2029
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market21 May 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Astrakhan know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces30 Apr 2029
Supporters organise against the Astrakhan board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
The scrutiny sharpens at Astrakhan
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Astrakhan is running low.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
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Squad30 Apr 2029
Words at Astrakhan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luca Boncori is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Boardroom30 Apr 2029
Astrakhan can only buy what they sell
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
The dugout30 Apr 2029
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market22 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market22 Jan 2029
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Konstantin Kolesnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Astrakhan the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Aly Tagiev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
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Squad22 Jan 2029
A row about effort at Astrakhan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yelisey Krivokhizhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market22 Jan 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Rasul Zhangurazov’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
The dugout22 Jan 2029
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Konstantin Kolesnikov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market22 Jan 2029
Danil Sizov runs his contract down
6 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Astrakhan money.
Squad22 Jan 2029
Questions about Danil Sizov on the training pitch
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Astrakhan
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market28 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Astrakhan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Orel keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets28 Aug 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words exchanged at Astrakhan
Fedor Galochkin and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market28 Aug 2028
Add another name to the list: Druzhba have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fedor Semenov. The answer from Astrakhan has not changed — yet.
The dugout28 Aug 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Yelisey Krivokhizhin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Jun 2028
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Astrakhan people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Astrakhan
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Astrakhan can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
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Squad26 Jun 2028
Rasul Zhangurazov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and Astrakhan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A row about effort at Astrakhan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yelisey Krivokhizhin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets26 Jun 2028
Astrakhan have made the call to Dinamo Bryansk. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Danil Roslyakov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.